Question abandoned.

[Som]

I'm not even close to being an American, yet it's my 'all time' favorite novel. Books don't have boundaries as readers are their country!

[Gregsamsa]

It's been well-received in England, Japan, and India, so I'd have to say that the answer to your question is no. I of course found the book long, but I didn't think it was particularly hard to read. The language was pretty straightforward, in my opinion. Now, the disjointed timeline could make it difficult to follow, but I didn't remember any of it meditating on "the nature of repetition and tedium" but I do think that would apply to his posthumously published The Pale King.

I think most of the snowballing popularity is the result of word-of-mouth as mainstream media in the US is almost allergic to literary novels in general, certainly long ones, most definitely experimental ones. And even if some professors of American Lit are pushing it, that would not account for its popularity because a lot of books are assigned and--often just as a result of that--hated. Reading on a deadline with the threat of a test or a paper to write can seriously impede enjoyment. I think people, like myself, legitimately liked it because they thought it was fun and funny. I'm curious about the seemingly widespread effort to attribute that to other motives.

[Gregsamsa]

I can't speak to my appreciation based on reviews and reputation because I snatched it when it first came out because I loved his previous book of short stories and I had only read one brief review where the author admitted to not finishing it. The friends of mine whom I got to read it were not influenced unduly by my opinion anyway because they didn't finish it either, one of them calling it "a tempest in a term paper."

[Josh]

I don't know if I'd have enjoyed it more or less but I definitely would have read it sooner. The vast praise (combined with the size) put me off for a long time because nothing that well loved is ever as good as promised. And that holds true for Infinite Jest too, in the way that's like if you were given a briefcase and told a million pounds were inside but when you looked, you only had £999,000.

[Marks54]

I thought it was a smart and funny book that was challenging to read and digest but also rewarding. As to the question, how would I know about it if nobody told me it was good? My time is limited and valuable to me. I sometimes review new work in my field but I cannot stand wasting time on a bad book. ... so I do check reviews before I jump into a big book. So if I did not hear that the book was good, I probably would not have read it.

[Joshua]

No one told me it was good. I'd merely been looking for another dense, post modern author after I'd slogged my way through the works of Thomas Pynchon and thoroughly enjoyed the adventure and DFW, particularly Infinite Jest, kept getting recommended to me whenever I'd describe the kind of novel I was looking for. I was not disappointed.

[Josh]

The premise of this question is frustrating and cliche: it's the old idea that we all only like "serious books" because "experts" say they're "good."

SOMETIMES EXPERTS ARE RIGHT! I can't say how I would have reacted if I hadn't been told it is good (since I was), but why exactly is this an interesting subject of inquiry?